Today's race had a predictable outcome. The hassle off the track is more exciting. Has the air been cleared at Red Bull now that the honcho publicly supports Horner and Marko?
F1 is very exciting these days. Will undisputed championship candidate Verstappen drive for Mercedes next year? Yesterday the Dutchman announced that he welcomed the presence of Dr. Helmut Marko finds it essential to stay in the team. That was the clearest statement Max has made to date about all the buzz surrounding key figures in the team.
Internal struggle
The statement came after Marko himself announced that he might be suspended for – to start with – the race in Australia. This is because he has now been linked to the leaking of things that do not paint a flattering picture of team boss Christian Horner. It is clear that there is a lot going on within the Red Bull team. Unfortunately, so much that the suspected victim, or at least the one who accuses Horner of inappropriate behavior, has disappeared into the background in an internal power struggle.
Horner and Verstappen senior have eyes on the same employee?
On the one hand there are Christian and the Yoovidhya family from Thailand, which owns 51 percent of Red Bull. On the other, Dr. Marko, CEO Oliver Mintzlaff and Red Bull GmbH. Although Marko and Mintzlaff would actually not like each other at all. A complicating factor is that Horner, one way or the other, has at least had a crooked affair with a subordinate. A subordinate who was reportedly also 'chasing' Jos Verstappen, to use a term that may no longer be allowed.
Three-letter palindrome
In any case, Verstappen senior thinks Horner is a three-letter palindrome. And Verstappen junior, thinks his father (and Marko) are great. Although an 'independent' lawyer hired by Red Bull has ruled that all the events were apparently not serious enough to suspend Horner, Horner at least has some explaining to do to his wife. And to some extent, his behavior discredited the team.
Horner wants more
That is not convenient for Horner, because he was reportedly busy taking on a greater role in the team. Christian is the longest serving team boss in F1, but bottom line he is still a manager. Marko was also allowed to choose the drivers. That is of course quite crazy. Horner saw a greater future for himself, perhaps following the example of Toto Wolff.
Together with Yoovidhya, he apparently wanted to completely separate the team from Red Bull GmbH (the Austrian branch). He also wanted to take control of part of the team himself. And wanted to sideline his Austrian 'friends' within the team. Marko and Minzlaff both saw that, they didn't like it that way. That is why angry tongues linked both to the leaking of the investigation into and later Horner's apps.
Toto thinks it's mighty beautiful
In short, it's huge clusterfuck very buzzing. Toto Wolff is enjoying it to the fullest and already said that she would like Dr. Take Marko with you when Max comes over. But now, actually during the race, news has emerged showing that Red Bull is at least trying to calm things down.
Minzlaff supports Marko…and Horner
Marko remains 'normal' after a 'good conversation' with Oliver Minzlaff. The same Minzlaff has at the same time expressed his public support for Christian Horner to stay on. So the CEO now supports both 'camps'. In the meantime, it is rumored that the dismissed employee who does not think Horner is such a nice peer will still receive reasonable compensation. The latter has not (yet) been confirmed, but this could cause the matter to fade even further into the background if the victim agrees with this course of events. Which of course does not mean that all other issues that are clearly important within the team have suddenly disappeared.
Genie in the bottle?
Under the stage, Horner himself stood hand in hand with his wife Geri, just like in Bahrain to present a common front to applaud Verstappen and Perez. After the race he denied that there is an internal power struggle going on within the team. So…The cold in the air?
In favor of this idea is that at the end of the day no one really wants to leave Red Bull after two 1-2s in the first races, especially not the top people. They like to commit themselves to the ridiculous success. On the other hand; Whether this is a genie that can really be put back in the bottle seems unrealistic after these races in Arabia. At best it will probably be a delay until the success dries up and the scores are settled. Anyway, we'll see.
This article Cleared the air? Red Bull honcho supports Horner and Marko first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
#Cleared #air #Red #Bull #honcho #supports #Horner #Marko